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Related: About this forumNew Horizons Finds Blue Skies and Water Ice on Pluto
Plutos Blue Sky: Plutos haze layer shows its blue color in this picture taken by the New Horizons Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC). The high-altitude haze is thought to be similar in nature to that seen at Saturns moon Titan. The source of both hazes likely involves sunlight-initiated chemical reactions of nitrogen and methane, leading to relatively small, soot-like particles (called tholins) that grow as they settle toward the surface. This image was generated by software that combines information from blue, red and near-infrared images to replicate the color a human eye would perceive as closely as possible.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
The first color images of Plutos atmospheric hazes, returned by NASAs New Horizons spacecraft last week, reveal that the hazes are blue.
Who would have expected a blue sky in the Kuiper Belt? Its gorgeous, said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Boulder, Colorado.
The haze particles themselves are likely gray or red, but the way they scatter blue light has gotten the attention of the New Horizons science team. That striking blue tint tells us about the size and composition of the haze particles, said science team researcher Carly Howett, also of SwRI. A blue sky often results from scattering of sunlight by very small particles. On Earth, those particles are very tiny nitrogen molecules. On Pluto they appear to be larger but still relatively small soot-like particles we call tholins.
Scientists believe the tholin particles form high in the atmosphere, where ultraviolet sunlight breaks apart and ionizes nitrogen and methane molecules and allows them to react with one another to form more and more complex negatively and positively charged ions. When they recombine, they form very complex macromolecules, a process first found to occur in the upper atmosphere of Saturns moon Titan. The more complex molecules continue to combine and grow until they become small particles; volatile gases condense and coat their surfaces with ice frost before they have time to fall through the atmosphere to the surface, where they add to Plutos red coloring.
more
http://www.nasa.gov/nh/nh-finds-blue-skies-and-water-ice-on-pluto
Water Ice on Pluto: Regions with exposed water ice are highlighted in blue in this composite image from New Horizons' Ralph instrument, combining visible imagery from the Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) with infrared spectroscopy from the Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA). The strongest signatures of water ice occur along Virgil Fossa, just west of Elliot crater on the left side of the inset image, and also in Viking Terra near the top of the frame. A major outcrop also occurs in Baré Montes towards the right of the image, along with numerous much smaller outcrops, mostly associated with impact craters and valleys between mountains. The scene is approximately 280 miles (450 kilometers) across. Note that all surface feature names are informal.
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New Horizons Finds Blue Skies and Water Ice on Pluto (Original Post)
n2doc
Oct 2015
OP
mindwalker_i
(4,407 posts)1. Damn, the little bugger is WAY mre interesting
than it has any right to be.
d_legendary1
(2,586 posts)2. Another place for Nestle to exploit
After we build our colony on Titan.
starroute
(12,977 posts)3. The sun is out / The sky is blue / It's beautiful / And so are you